More than 1,000 Muslim women in the southern border provinces have been abandoned following affairs or marriage with Buddhist troops deployed to keep security in the region, a senior official said Monday.

Chaiyong Maneerungsakul, the chairman of committee on justice and human rights related to southern border problems, said the southern violence also caused social problems for local Muslim women.

He said when Buddhist troops were deployed to keep security in the deep South, they liked local Muslim women and had affairs with them and abandoned them. Some of the troops fell in love with the women and married them but when they returned home to other regions, their Muslim wives could not put up with the culture shock and had to return home to their southern border provinces.

As a result, troops deployed to the southern border provinces had caused a lot of social problems in the region, Chaiyong said. He said so far more than 1,000 Muslim women had been abandoned by troops or other government officials.

Chaiyong said the Fourth Army Area commander realised the problems and had commanders educate troops from other regions about the culture of local women so that they would not cause more problems.

Chaiyong said local spiritual leaders should also play a bigger role in educating local women to prevent more problems.